Our Mission, Our Philosophy (Summary Final, Paper 1.)

Our Mission, Our Philosophy

(summary final, paper 1.)

Betty Cortez

Professor, Richard Voth

Management 420

January 15, 2007

Cortez 1

Betty Cortez

Professor, Richard Voth

Management 420

January 15, 2007

Our Mission, Our Philosophy

(Summary Paper 1)

Education has always been of great importance to me for several reasons. One reason is that I watched my parents struggle, working hard physical labor throughout their life to pay the household bills. I knew if they would of had a higher education, it would have been easier. My parents never even completed elementary school. My father almost completed 3rd grade and my mother completed 4th grade. The importance of education was driven into me and my other siblings, by our parents. One day after arriving home from high school, my younger sister, Rosie told me, "Sis, we need a school here for the gifted." We did not give the idea much thought than, but later on it became more of a serious discussion.

My sister, Rosie is gifted. Several definitions are given for gifted and talented students, but the one I like best is the Federal definition from 1988. It reads, "The term 'gifted and talented students' means children and youth who give evidence of high performance capability in areas such as intellectual, creative, artistic, or leadership capacity, or in specific academic fields, and who require services or activities not ordinarily provided by the school in order to fully develop such capabilities" (Asked Questions, pg. 1). At times, her special talents made it hard for her to fit into a public school. In elementary school, the teachers found it difficult to keep her occupied and she became very bored. For example, when the teacher gave her a book to read, it seemed like she read it, in the blink of an eye. Rosie's class-work was

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always completed way in advance of the other students. She always passed with an easy "A." As children growing up together, I and my other siblings, envied her at times because we worked very hard just to accomplish a 'B' or 'C' passing grade.

In her first year of high school she became really bored and felt that she was not learning, and even wanted to quit school. Persuading her to stay in school was difficult for my parents. When I look back at those times, I could see that my parents hurt because they could never afford to put Rosie in a private school for gifted children. Another issue at that time, was that I don't even think there was a school for gifted children nearby. Overall, Rosie accomplished her high school diploma, with great honors and received a scholarship to cover her tuition expenses in college.

In the early 90's, a while after Rosie finished high school, we were at my parents home for dinner and found ourselves discussing the idea and desperate need for an educational system, that supported the needs of academically gifted children. The type of school we were discussing was rare, but was even rarer in our area, when Rosie was attending school. What's even worse than the rareness of a gifted school is coming from poverty, and parents not getting the help and financial support needed to get their gifted child into a school. There are several kinds of grants to help the gifted, but many parents are not aware of this support. I feel my idea speaks for itself, and is supported by my description given on the rareness and desperate need for a gifted school in our hometown area.

Even today, we continue to discuss the need for gifted schools in some areas, and other family members are joining in on our idea. Some of our nieces are in college to gain the knowledge and experience needed to work with children. My sister Rosie has completed her

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ECE degree and going forward. I am currently completing my business management degree and going forward. We all knew we needed to further our education to support and succeed our future plans. Together, we have accomplished great research on gifted children, that cover several areas. For example, one article I found interesting was on how the average student interacts with a gifted child.

Over the past years, while going to college and gaining individual educational growth, we have set together and continuously discuss our idea of opening a gifted school in the future. What we have noticed is that our education is paying off, because our ideas are becoming more visual, sensible and stronger. We have even discussed our views about our ideal mission and how we could state it, so that it influences others in a way, that they can see our purpose for which and what we stand. For example, our mission statement needed to tell our clients how our school would serve them, satisfy their children' needs. We wanted a mission statement that was short, specific, yet focused and memorable(Mission Statements, pg.1-2). We wanted a title that would include mine and my sister's name, so we chose Beth for Betty and Walker for my sister, which is her last name by marriage. Our mission statement and philosophy, would be similar to the following.

Mission Statement:

The Beth & Walker School is a private, independent school that's dedicated to providing an educational program that works to serve the needs of academically gifted children, grade K-8, in the Kern County district areas.

Philosophy:

Our philosophy of educating gifted students is that each individual should be permitted to learn at instructional levels with the pace and depth of curriculum content matching their academic abilities and social development, rather than grouping students' by age.